Safe Places
by Curious Delights
Summary: [Made as part of Lovely Zen Week on Tumblr, although late lol.] Evening talks and cuddling. Thoughts are shared and reassurances are given. Love is ever-present. Pure fluff. Enjoy their conversation.


Song rec: Jessica Jung - "Starry Night"

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The sound of keys fumbling with each other against the door lock resounded through the hallway. Metal against metal had never sounded more inviting like tonight, and Yejin knew why.

Hyun had been working more and later than usual these days. It surely was a blessing that he had been cast in a two-month long production of a new musical, yet it did pose problems with regards to their time together. Of course, Yejin couldn't complain. Hyun had been extremely excited about this lead role: a young man who traveled the country in search for his lost love, slowly documenting to himself the lives in the places he had gone to. He found the role interesting and challenging in the sense that the lead must experience the changing emotions of man, the rage, the heartbreak, and the ultimate acceptance of loss.

It was truly a good musical. Yejin had been there for the first showing—VIP seats at that, too—and brought flowers for Hyun as congratulations and treating him to a very nice meal afterwards. She was proud of him and still is. However, even she herself had work to tend to and thus couldn't accompany her love for every show, no matter how much Hyun would persuade her. She didn't mind going, but she would remind him teasingly that he wasn't the only one making a living. That, and Yejin knew she would have an overdose of the musical itself. She liked theater enough but to see the same show every week could prove taxing. She promised herself, however, that she would be there for the final night.

Due to the busy weeks on Hyun's side, he tended to come home late from rehearsals and full shows. Yejin would be asleep and Hyun never wanted to wake her, but for a few times she caught him sometimes pressing kisses on her cheeks and shoulders.

She missed more of that.

So for this night that she's hearing the door opening, her surprise was growing pleasant. Was Hyun really home early?

Yejin had just finished cleaning up the kitchen after her dinner and had to peek through towards the entranceway to see.

"… Hyun?" She called out, but she wasn't so sure if it was loud enough.

And surely, there he was! Decked out still in a light grey coat and black outfit (he loved that simple style, by the way), Hyun was in the progress of removing his shoes when his head shot up at the sound of his dearest's voice. He knew Yejin to be louder than usual, but when she spoke in that soft tone, he might as well just melt right then and there.

With a wave of his hand, a wide grin, and a wink, he finally greeted her. "Honey, I'm home."

Yejin snickered. "Let me guess: you always wanted to try saying that?"

"Okay, you got me there. So?" He held out his arms wide open. "Welcome home kiss and hug?"

"What a cheeseball." She told herself, but despite that, she knew she was weak when it came to such invitations. Yejin shook her head and walked down to the entranceway, bursting into a jog when she neared Hyun to jump into the embrace and savor the warmth he emanated when his arms rounded her body.

"I missed this." She told him as she turned her head up to look at him and plant a big one on Hyun's lips.

He laughed through the contact, squeezing the other tighter in his hold and teasing her as he moved his lips to kiss more of her face then down to her neck where he knew it tickled her. Her giggles were melodies to his ears.

"What do you mean you missed this? I kiss you all the time and everything!"

"I meant I missed it when we're both awake. I feel bad enough that you have to catch me asleep most of the time."

"Well we still wake up to each other, right?" His eyes gleamed with a hint of mischief and his arms pulled her a little closer towards him. "Do you want to wake up in our more intimate way? I can do that often if you want, you know."

"So can I."

He instigated the teasing but he ended up becoming flustered himself at her knowing look. How could he forget that he also fell in love with her boldness like that? Yejin never showed it much in front of the others. It was only for Hyun and he preferred it that way.

"Hey, hey. Don't tease me too much. The night's still young but I can make it last longer than—"

Yejin cut him off with a laugh and finally pulled herself off from the embrace. "I know. But we can wait, right? I just ate a pretty heavy meal tonight since I skipped lunch earlier."

"And why'd you do that?" He asked, his voice almost stern. He pulled his coat off and hung it on the rack. "You know I hate it when you skip meals."

"Yeah, but I had to finish off a lot of work for the week. I don't want to go back on Tuesday with leftover projects." She explained. "How about you? Did you have dinner?"

"Mhm. We had an early meal this time with the cast. Do we still have any beer?"

"The fridge never runs out of it." Yejin turned to him before entering the kitchen again. "I'll bring you a can. Go and rest first."

"Thanks, babe—hm?" Hyun looked towards the couch. It was truly inviting to sit back down and turn on the television, but he wasn't exactly in the mood to just laze around like that, especially now that he and Yejin finally found some time together.

He chuckled then called out. Maybe a good moment at a good place would be a better choice.

"Babe, I'll see you at the rooftop."

* * *

She wasn't sure if she heard him right, but once Yejin got back to the living room and found it empty, she just shook her head and smiled.

"Guess I'll need a couple more cans."

Yejin made her way up towards the rooftop. Since summer was nearing the end of its reign, her choice of a light sweater proved to be helpful. She opened the heavy, gray door to be greeted by a nice breeze and the view of her love leaning casually against the concrete edge of the place.

Always and always, he took her breath away even without doing anything. His figure against the dark night sky and the soft yellow lights of the roof's lamps gave him an almost ethereal look.

It took her a while to regain her senses from that.

Hearing the hinges creaking stirred the actor up, and he turned to see Yejin with the beers in hand. His guilt on making her carry all that rose up fast and he almost ran towards her to take the beverages himself.

"Sorry, babe!" He laughed, almost a bit nervously, and kissed her forehead to make up for it. "I thought you were only gonna bring one."

Yejin simply scrunched he face up at him in a funny way, making sure he doesn't even blame himself for the smallest of things. Hyun really liked treating her like a princess after all but she sometimes had to remind him that even the prince himself is allowed to relax.

"I decided to drink, too." She said as they made their way to the corner of the area, taking their seat on the bench available. "And since we're up here, I know one serving won't be enough for either of us."

"You know the best as always. C'mere." Hyun pulled Yejin close to him, lifting her legs up to drape them over his lap. That was their position there all the time and it hardly changed unless truly necessary.

He opened a can for her first then one for himself, motioning for a toast.

"Cheers."

"Cheers indeed." She watched Hyun as he gulped down a quarter of the contents. His eyes seemed to have trouble looking at her directly now and it made her worry. The very fact that he wanted to be up at the rooftop already made her think, anyway.

"Hyun?"

"Yeah?"

"Look at me. What's wrong?" Yejin already lifted her hand to touch Zen's face but he followed her request soon afterwards anyway, realizing that he couldn't really hide much from her. He was too expressive.

He still tried, though.

"It's nothing."

"Is something wrong at work?"

"No, no. Nothing's wrong with that!"

She was almost pouting and whatever mood Hyun was in, he couldn't ignore how cute she looked that way. He laughed a little but her concern only grew worse.

Finally, Hyun gave a nod towards her, a signal that he was going to talk now.

"I was just thinking about how much I must have neglected you these past days."

That caught her off-guard and she turned confused. "What?"

He gave her a cheeky grin. "Someone at work sort of had that problem. It ate at him so much that I had to tell him to get a grip… in the nicest way possible, that is. He was still feeling pretty messed up but his act was coming in next. We couldn't afford to let the audience see that. The director would've also been pissed."

"What happened to him?"

"Well. His girlfriend actually broke up with him at the theater because he focused too much on work. You know how those stories go."

Yejin nodded. She did hear about those things, more so than ever when she got familiar with Hyun's industry.

She decided to be frank with him to clear the air fast. It was easy to see there was something running through his mind and God knows the reason why they had the alcohol was to ease up, too.

"Did you think that was going to happen to us?"

Yejin actually felt him stop all movement and his stare at her could have gone past what he could see.

"It's not that…" He was trailing off almost unconsciously but he tried to explain his thoughts the best he could after another helping of beer.

Hyun sighed. "I'm not thinking of that but it did shake me a little, I guess. The way that guy was affected got to me but I have faith in you, Yejin. I remembered that and calmed myself down."

She nodded. "I'm glad you didn't doubt it."

"I'd never! That's why I don't want you to feel bad about all my time away."

"We actually already fought about that one time."

"Yes. Yes, we did. It was silly, wasn't it?"

The memory made the two of them laugh, surprising themselves at how easy they flipped the atmosphere with it. They didn't meet halfway earlier on in the relationship. Hyun had gotten more roles since his rise to fame and had grown fond of each opportunity he was given. It meant more work on his side while Yejin focused on her own, but she had more free time compared to the other. He proved how much of a workaholic he was. Despite his knowledge about women, his lack of a relationship for a time prior to meeting his fated coordinator was a factor in the resulting fight. Hyun expected to be understood with his work and Yejin simply wanted a little more attention.

"How did we resolve that?" He asked as he put his arm around Yejin's waist, pulling her closer to him to be able to give a small kiss on her cheek. She smelled of soft jasmine and he loved it. He could drown in that scent forever.

"Mm." Yejin thought for a while, swirling the can in her hand. She looked at Hyun. "We went up here."

There was a nod. "Right. It seems like everything happening to us goes back to the rooftop. We… shouted a little back then, huh?"

"Yeah, but we made up fast, I remember." She said. "I didn't want to fight in the first place."

"Neither did I." He put his now-empty can beside him and breathed deeply. "I shouldn't be thinking of negative stuff when I have you beside me."

"That's okay. That's why we talk and why we go up here." She offered him a smile, ultimately to calm him down from the thoughts.

"You're right." Hyun smiled back at her before looking up at the sky. It was a beautiful and clear night without a speck of a cloud in sight. "Even the stars are witnesses to our relationship now. I'm sure we're getting better at this. The god of fate is helping."

She followed his gaze. "You mean the god you wanted to punch?"

"No. Not anymore. I said I'll apologize to that god 'cause he made us meet, right?"

Yejin laughed. "You remember that."

"I remember a lot of things when we first met." He told her. "I have no intentions of forgetting them."

"Same here." She replied as she slowly shifted her position on the bench to move closer and be able to rest her head on Hyun's shoulder. "I really liked it when you showed me this place when I first came here."

"I trusted you enough to show you one of my safe places." He noticed that Yejin started playing around with his ponytail, his strands of silver hair dancing between her delicate fingers. It was cute. "I wanted to share it with you."

"Thank you. I love it."

"So do I." He opened his other can and started to drink again while it was still cold. "You're happy here, right?"

Yejin nodded. "Of course."

"And you're happy with me, right?"

"Yes. I love you."

He couldn't help but laugh at that. Yejin just blurted it out so easily and lovingly and he adored it every single time she did it. He moved to turn to her then, holding her face in his hands to plant a ton of kisses all over. "I love you just as much, and more."

"Is that a challenge?" She teased, reciprocating his actions until they were sharing a mess of beer-laced kisses. "I'm so up for it."

"Are you also up for my offer earlier?" His brow rose up flirtily. "About making the night last long for you and me?"

"Don't you have rehearsals to do tomorrow, mister? I don't think getting you exhausted tonight will help."

"Oh? Didn't I tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Hyun winked at her. "That I've got tomorrow off and until Monday afternoon. I was thinking of spending all that time with a certain special someone."

She grinned. "Do you think that certain special someone is looking forward to it?"

"I hope she is. I've got a lot planned starting tonight."

Yejin drank the rest of the contents of her can. "She'll probably need a few more of these then."

"Okay, you must be picking that habit up from me. Come on." He laughed and carried her up in his arms, appreciating how she automatically held on to him. The squeal she made upon being lifted only made him all the more excited, too.

Suffice to say, that night definitely made up for the missed affections.

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I hope you guys enjoyed that!

I always thought they could be such a cute and casual couple together, and I took advantage of a nice rooftop scene since that place was memorable enough for them.

Please tell me what you think of it and if there's anything I should work on! You can find me on Tumblr and AO3 with the same usernames!

Thank you for your time!


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